The City of Santa Barbara received $4.9 million in sales tax during the quarter ended June 30, a decline of 1.5 percent over the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012.

This decline is the result of one-time adjustments for the state’s misallocation of sales taxes between jurisdictions. Each quarter, adjustments are made to account for misallocations. Excluding the adjustments, sales tax revenues were  3.1 percent higher, primarily due to an increase in auto sales and new restaurants.

Over $19.7 million in sales taxes were received in fiscal year 2013, representing overall growth of 3.3 percent, exceeding the budget by approximately $174,000.

Although the city’s sales tax has shown robust recovery from declines experienced during the recession, the year end totals are equivalent to the amount of sales tax collected in fiscal year 2008. Sales tax is the second-largest General Fund revenue and, despite a lower than expected growth rate than the state average of 6.2 percent for the year, the city continues to show a steady recovery from growth lost during the recession.

Click here to view the sales tax table.

Transient Occupancy Tax Continues Growth in August and September

Santa Barbara lodging establishments collected and remitted $2.07 million in transient occupancy tax during August (12.9 percent higher than August of last year) and $1.51 million during September (9.5 percent higher than September of last year). It is likely that the warm, clear weather, as well as an increase in overall rooms, contributed to the strong growth of the past two months.

The number of weekend days in a given month directly affects lodging revenues and the city’s TOT. August had one more weekend day than last August and, therefore, the number of weekend days may have boosted this year’s growth. Although this September had one less weekend day than last September, the growth rate remained strong.

More than $5.6 million in TOT has been collected in the first three months of the fiscal year. Year-to-date collections are 11.9 percent ahead of last year, ahead of the 10.4 percent budgeted growth for fiscal year 2014. The fiscal year 2014 TOT budget is $16,202,000.

Click here to view the transient occupancy tax table.

— Genie Wilson is the treasury manager for the City of Santa Barbara.